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Contact Tim Baxter Online Editor
Grassroots Motorsports Rating:
13
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- Member since:
- Jul 13, 2007
- Board posts:
- 4961 (Let's see 'em)
- Homepage:
- http://gretschpages.com
- Location:
- Prairie Village, KS United States
- Occupation:
- Online Editor
Tim Baxter's Bio
I was 15 years old, with a brand-new, freshly minted drivers license tucked snugly in my wallet when I first saw the GT6. Life would never be the same.
The Triumph sat dusty and forlorn off to the side of a neighbor's carport, right where it had been abandoned when the neighbors' daughter decided she wanted a "real car". I had no idea what it was, but it looked cool and at 800 bucks for it it worked for my non-existent budget.
Of course it didn't run. For years it had done nothing but provide shelter for a fairly large family of field mice. But it was soon mine--mouse droppings and all.
Somehow, I overcame my complete and total lack of knowledge about cars. Through sheer teenage determination I disinfected and deodorized, buffed out the paint and got it running. Off I went, neither knowing nor caring what extended periods of inactivity do to ancient British braking systems or how a 1967 Mk1 Triumph GT6 and teenage drivers don't mix. Swing axles? Snap oversteer? Failing calipers? None of that mattered--it ran.
As it turned out, it didn't run for very long. After only a couple of months I was rear-ended by a truck, and that was the end of that Triumph. It was only the beginning for me. I went on to a series of silly little cars in varying states of disrepair: More Triumphs, MG, VWs and old BMWs than anyone could keep track of. If it was cool and cheap, I bought it. Somewhere along the way I actually got reasonably adept at keeping them running.
While I was obsessing over old cars, I also somehow found time to join the Navy for awhile, then take their money (thank you, Uncle Sam) and go to college. In college I learned a lot about beer and enough about journalism to become a reporter for awhile. Somewhere along the way people started paying me to do advertising, graphic design and web work for them, which was fine by me.
Eventually I convinced Tim Suddard since I knew how to do stuff, he should hire me to do stuff for him. Not sure how I pulled that one off, but I'm glad I did.
And that's about it. These days I'm happily married, have the coolest son you're ever likely to meet, and have temporarily sworn off goofy old cars. The current stable includes a Miata (the fun car), a Volvo S40 (the family car) and a Subaru Legacy wagon (the workhorse). Apparently I'm getting sensible in my old age. I think I may need to track down another long-abandoned little car.
